Advocates: Four traits we want in NYC’s next schools chief — and four candidates we don’t want

With a transition in New York City’s education leadership imminent, insiders are jockeying to make sure their perspectives are taken into account.

We received a letter from two advocates who say they want the city’s next chancellor to be a lot like the outgoing one, Carmen Fariña. David Kirkland, the executive director of NYU’s Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools, and Natasha Capers, the coordinator of the Coalition for Educational Justice, say they want Mayor Bill de Blasio to pick someone who, like Fariña, would bring experience, commitment, a belief in collaboration, and a focus on equity.

But they’re asking for more: Capers, a harsh critic of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s education agenda who was often allied with the education department under Fariña, has more recently pushed for more transparency from the de Blasio administration and called for the city to do more to encourage culturally responsive teaching. The letter says the next chancellor needs to tackle this issue more than Fariña has. (The letter does not mention racial segregation, an issue that Kirkland focuses on as a member of the city’s new school diversity advisory group and leader of a resource center meant to support activists, officials, and school administrators focused on school integration.)

Capers and Kirkland also draw a line in the sand for the kind of chancellor they couldn’t support: one with any association with the Broad Academy, a leadership program for school administrators with ties to the school reform movement that Bloomberg’s education policies exemplified.

The full letter is below. The chancellor search could be heading into its final stretch, if Fariña’s farewell tour is any indication — or not. City Hall has been tight-lipped about where the search to replace her stands.

When Mayor Bill de Blasio chose Carmen Fariña as Chancellor four years ago, parents and advocates were excited to have an experienced educator and former public school parent in leadership. This has meant an increased focus on teaching and learning, stronger supports for struggling schools, and an emphasis on educating the whole child through arts, physical education, language and more.

The choice of Chancellor Fariña’s successor is crucial. De Blasio represents a marked departure from the Bloomberg market-based approach to schooling that used testing to grade and punish schools, and saw parents and communities as nuisances. De Blasio has prioritized reforms that support quality teaching and whole child development. This includes universal full-day pre-K, community schools with social and emotional supports for students, arts and physical education, and moving from punitive to positive discipline policies. But to date Mayor de Blasio’s reforms have not gone far enough. The success or failure of his next Chancellor will determine the Mayor’s legacy and whether or not his reforms, beyond pre-K, survive his tenure.

Four key traits are necessary for the next Chancellor: Commitment, Experience, Equity, and Collaboration.

Commitment: Chancellor Fariña has demonstrated a strong commitment to public education as a public good. The next Chancellor must also be deeply committed to keeping public schools public and accessible to all students, and not undermining access through the illusion of choice and privatization.

Experience: As was the case with Chancellor Fariña, the next Chancellor must be an experienced educator with a track record of leading a large urban school districts, and have specific experience and knowledge of the New York City school system—which is by far the nation’s largest and most complex.

Equity: The next Chancellor must be driven by a deep commitment to eliminate the opportunity gap based on race, ethnicity, gender, language and ability, and improve education for historically oppressed populations. This includes a commitment to culturally responsive education which to date the de Blasio administration has failed to adequately embrace.

Collaboration: The Chancellor should have a track record of working in partnership with parents, students, educators and community organizations; building and sustaining partnerships between the district and the community; and addressing problems by bringing multiple stakeholders together to devise solutions. The Mayor’s critically important signature reform of Renewal Schools and community schools has suffered as the Department of Education has struggled with genuine collaboration among families, schools, district staff, central DOE, and community partners, and at providing the efficient supports and leadership needed to help these schools succeed.

To meet these criteria, the Mayor will have to stay away from the crew of Broad-trained administrators who represent the brand of “education reform” that de Blasio ran against. Those include John White, Superintendent of Louisiana; Paymon Rouhanifard, Superintendent of Camden, NJ; Kaya Henderson, former Chancellor of DC Public Schools; and Jaime Aquino, a former Deputy Superintendent in Los Angeles who was involved with a conflict-of-interest scandal regarding purchase of iPads.

De Blasio has moved in the right direction on education, but he has had neither the boldness nor the focus our families expect from the Mayor. He must be certain that the next Chancellor shares the vision of reform that is based on supporting students and providing equity, but the next Chancellor must also have the experience and commitment needed to navigate the complexity of our massive school system and the skills at collaborating with families and communities needed to succeed.